Cheever’s narratives rarely end ‘happily ever after’. Why might a writer choose to make their characters suffer?

'The Swimmer', Neddy returns home to find his family gone and house empty; 'Torch song', Jack is left on the brink of death; 'Reunion', an estranged father and son are left no closer towards reconciliation: Cheever does not write uplifting stories; he writes stories which are truthful.

Life isn't easy; we go through hardships and don't always come out on top, this is a theme which prevails throughout Cheever's stories. He himself said: “I write to make sense of my life." With the numerous times that Cheever alludes to alcohol and relationships, we don't have to dig too deeply to begin to suspect of the author's inner turmoil with alcoholism and questions of sexuality. His work is a means of making sense of and wrestling with this inner strife.

But this is not a phenomena present solely in the work of John Cheever, authors notoriously have "a sliver of ice in their hearts", as said by Graham Greene. Authors do terrible things to their characters, we see this with examples such as the Marquis de Sade in his tale of Justine where she endures repeated depravity and abuse. Even modern author, George R. R. Martin; his A Song of Fire and Ice series is now infamous for the suffering inflicted upon its protagonists. But it doesn't seem that the authors necessarily enjoy the struggles of their characters. The Red Wedding, for example, was the "hardest to write" for George R. R. Martin.

So, if is not that writers are sadists who enjoy making their characters suffer, why do they do it? Should fiction not be an escape from the pain of reality? A balm for the endless suffering that we endure?
I believe that it is because fiction is a reflection of life. We relate to pain and we use it as inspiration and a guide to get us through our own. The act of writing is cathartic, both for the writer and for the reader, we use is a therapy to grapple with truth and pain that we are unable to in our everyday lives.

Comments

  1. Unknown21 February 2014 at 08:03

    I LOVE that scene from The Silver Linings Playbook! Such a great novel.

    ReplyDelete

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